Various printing systems form an image on a media by way of an imaging surface such as, for example, a photoreceptor. The image is often fixed to the media by a fusing process. The fusing process conventionally involves advancing the media having the image through a fuser unit of the printing system. Fuser units often include a fixing roll and a pressure roll. Printing systems conventionally apply a release agent to the fixing roll to aid in stripping the media from the fixing roll after the fusing process is complete. Some of this release agent is inadvertently transferred from the fixing roll to the pressure roll in an inter-document zone that occurs between sheeted media processed by the printing system.
Release agent builds on the pressure roll and is often carried back to the imaging surface during a duplex printing mode. This release agent carried back to the imaging surface causes image related defects.